Ubuntu 18.04 on a MacBook Pro 13

Note, this article is about a Macbook Pro 2017 13,1 | Check for compatibility here

Intro

Arriving at this page, you might be thinking, why?

What is wrong with MacOS to warrant such an unholy union between hardware and software?

Well for me it was simply down to several reasons:

Resource usage; MacOS 10.14 Mojave loves to hog memory and CPU. Which in conjunction with development tools and other applications means you are running out of resources (especially if you are on an 8gb version).

With the aforementioned comes overheating, and MacOS power management is ok but not great, meaning you can be draining your battery well below the marketed charge time.

I am used to developing on Linux and switching keybindings is painful, especially when your muscle memory has been honed over many years.

So how did I go about this?

Research

Prepping the Macbook Pro

Prepping the Linux Install

Installation

Tweaks and Configurations

All in all, this was around three hours work in total for me, however if you are much more confident then it can be done in less time.

Caveat Emptor!

These instructions could result in a failed installation or a broken Macbook, so make sure you are comfortable before proceeding.

Research

First of all you need to ascertain whether your model and year of Macbook can indeed handle an installation of Linux.

Head over to this useful repository to find out. It details all compatibilities and quirks you might find.

In my case I had a 2017 Macbook Pro 13,1, which is compatbile for the majority of the hardware, minus the sound.

Check out this YouTube video as well.

Required items checklist:

USB with minimum 4Gb storage

MacBook Thunderbolt adapter, to allow you to plugin a USB drive

Prepwork

The next stage is to make space on the MacBook for a Linux installation. Using the Disk Utility application, you can create a new partition with a suitable label e.g. ("Ubuntu").

Unfortunately the soundcard is still not working natively with Ubuntu, however you can get sound through HDMI which is a viable workaround.

X11 / Display

X11 cannot handle high DPI screens, so you find that the icons etc. are very small on the laptop screen, however on a multi monitor setup its fine.

Conclusion

It might not be ideal for some, but my productivity has not suffered at all from running Ubuntu on my MacBook Pro, plus I've had the benefits of more system resources, cooler temps and longer battery life.